Car Interiors Are Nine Times Dirtier Than Public Toilets

Pop quiz: when was the last time you gave your steering wheel a good cleaning? It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Yeah, we thought so. Turns out most people don’t keep their cars all that clean inside—and as a result, the average whip’s interior is drenched in germs.

The average steering wheel? It has around 700 types of bacteria per square inch, compared with 80 kinds of bacteria for a public toilet. The average trunk is almost as dirty, with around 670 distinct kinds of bacteria per square inch. It gets grosser: ccording to the study, conducted in England by London’s Queen Mary University, one of the most common bacteria found is a nasty critter known as bacillus cereus, which has been known to cause food poisioning.

Thankfully, most of you reading this probably take better care of your rides than the average Brit, so your car is probably not that bad—but the next time you’re prepping your whip for a show, it wouldn’t hurt to run one of them disposable Lysol cloths over the interior. [Shout-out to Autoblog and IBN!]